The crack above was revealed when three friends and I removed the wall paneling and drywall that adorned the two 42' walls of our basement to prepare for bracing. While this crack is minor in terms of size (some houses have cracks three or four inches wide) our exterior walls are slowly tipping inwards. The strategic placement of 4" I-beams every four feet will stop this movement. The beams are cemented at least 3" down into the basement floor and bolted into the floor joists above, creating a brace wherein for the wall to move, the entire house must implode - though I don't think it ever comes to that.
While we are taking the bracing as an opportunity to make our basement more functional by putting insulation and gyproc on the walls, the removal of the existing panelling presented us with quite a different option we never considered. Wallpaper. On the bare concrete walls. Seriously. Why not?
Here is the first bit we found. Nice. However, soon this was revealed -- not one, not two, but THREE layers of wallpaper. (You have to look very closely at the top of the photo to see the bottom layer.)
And, just for good measure, a fifth type of wallpaper (with a bit of crack thrown in...)
This discovery leaves some burning questions in my mind: Were all the wallpapers visible at the same time? Who chose them? Why? Was it once styllish to wallpaper your concrete walls? Why? Could I strip this paper and sell it at a vintage/retro building supplies store? Would it be worth the effort?
Once the bracing is done, I'll post some pictures and go into more detail about how that process works. Stay tuned!
Here's a pic of the trusty truck that was used to cart the crap away to the dump -- thought it deserved a mention. We own 1/4 of the truck, which has turned out to be a pretty good ownership arrangement - rarely do all of us need it on the same day.
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